高等教育国际化的转型:从教室到虚拟环境

Transformation of internationalization in higher education:from classrooms to virtual settings

高等教育国际化是一项国策,也是大学的战略选择。从历史上讲,国际化一直是大学的一部分。对于国家、大学和个人来讲,传统面授教育开展国际化的原因和意义是明确的,然而随着信息通信技术的发展国际化有了新内涵,其中最突出的一个方面是国际化的虚拟性。本文旨在分析传统高等教育国际化的意义和原因以及方法,并对虚拟国际化进行界定,讨论远程开放教育背景下虚拟国际化的方法。文章最后阐述虚拟国际化所带来的机会和挑战。文章认为虽然虚拟国际化提供了新机会,但是如果我们不能应对它所带来的挑战,那么它所能发挥的作用可能有限。

Internationalization in higher education(IHE)has been a policy issue for countries and a strategic orientation for individual universities.Historically,internationalization has always been a part of the university.In the traditional,face-to-face education,internationalization has specific rationales and meanings for countries,universities and individuals.However,with the developments in ICT,internationalization has gained a new meaning.The most prominent aspect of this meaning is that internationalization has gained a virtual dimension.The purpose of this article is to identify the traditional meaning and rationales of IHE as well as approaches to internationalization.Furthermore,the article defines virtual internationalization and discusses the approaches to virtual internationalization in the context of open and distance education.Finally,the article covers the opportunities and challenges that come along with virtual internationalization.It concludes that although virtual internationalization provides new opportunities,failure to tackle the challenges may end up with limited accomplishment of internationalization.